I was brought up and still live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia so I rely on imagery derived from the natural landscape to explore human relationships. My wife, Elizabeth, and I have two daughters and three grandchildren. I have been an architectural woodcarver for over 35 years and have written numerous articles and three books on the subject. My poetry has appeared in Shenandoah, Green Mountains Review, The Lyric, The South Carolina Review, Southern Poetry Review, and others.​

'Summer’s Peach Paradefor Elizabeth

You must be patient, anxious as high schoolseniors for graduation, for final grades.On a promise, I put a peck of Early Red Havenson our kitchen table. You watch them ripen.After dinner we share them over the sink.

They decorate our kids' cereal as if gold at the bottom of the box—revenge on the dust of whole grains and old harvests.Homework never rewarded so timely.

Southern Pearls, Sentries, John Boys,Lorings, Blakes parade the days of July cobbler and August pie, fearonly the bruise of hail and the first crispdays of apples that scout the orchard’s edge— the yellow bus is seen wandering back roads.

Our kids know the prizes of county fair are safe in jars of perfect jam, like September friends, they will grace winter’s warm waffles.

Elegy for Food

Say goodbye to foods we loved as kidstry as we might to save them.We add value to what surviveswith labels: heirloom, original, artisanal.

Say farewell to sweets and ice cream,watermelon seeds, roadside raspberries,the decadence of season is now global,stamped with barcodes and acronyms.

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